Bouquet
by cym70
Summary: Pearl has seen her fair share of unusual customers, but this one may end up being her favorite. Flower shop AU. (Day 2 of the Pearlshipping Bomb)


Pearl was used to her fair share of unusual customers, but few were on par with the tall, thin businesswoman who threw the door open and marched up to the counter, slamming a twenty-dollar bill onto it.

"I want the worst flowers you've got."

"Excuse me?" Pearl asked, mildly affronted by the assumption that any of her flowers could be considered the 'worst.'

"The most offensive," she clarified, somehow managing to look down her nose at Pearl despite the fact that she was _maybe_ two inches taller and that was entirely due to the clacking high heels that had announced her presence.

"I'm sorry, you want _offensive_ flowers?" Pearl repeated, baffled.

"Yes. Ones that mean 'fuck you and fuck everything I ever did for you, you ungrateful snob.'"

"That's rather specific," Pearl said mildly. "Ex-boyfriend?"

"Ugh, _no_. Definitely not." She looked disgusted. "My boss."

She bit back a laugh. "Your boss is that terrible?"

"I've been working there for three years and she _still_ treats me like some kind of intern! She just passed me up for a promotion in favor of a family friend with zero experience!"

"She does sound awful," Pearl said sympathetically.

"Yes. So if you could give me something to reflect that general sentiment before my twenty-minute lunch break is over, I would _really_ appreciate it."

"Of course." She slipped out from behind the counter and began walking around the store as she mulled over the meanings of various flowers. "Would 'hatred' be an adequate meaning?"

The woman, who had begun to follow her in sharp strides, nodded. "Quite."

"May I suggest orange lilies?" she tried. "I don't have many in stock at the moment, but there's enough for one bouquet." She indicated the bright flowers off to the left.

"Perfect," she said with a smirk. "They're just as huge and gaudy as she is."

"I'll ring them up for you then." She plucked them out carefully and headed back to the register. "May I ask why you're buying her flowers at all?"

"Because I can't quit yet and I need some way to express how much I despise her without her knowing. And she asked me to buy some for her desk."

"You're assuming she doesn't have time to look up flower meanings?"

"She doesn't have time for _anything_ , that's why she's got me."

"Well, if she asks, they can also be used to symbolize passion."

"Fantastic," the woman said sarcastically. "I'll say I admire the passion with which she runs her business and screws over her employees."

Pearl laughed a little. "Alright, but do be careful with your word choice." She picked up the twenty-dollar bill and put it into the till, ignoring the fact that the total should have come to closer to twenty-five.

The woman grumbled something under her breath, arms crossed.

Pearl looked at her for a moment, blushing a little when they made eye contact, the other woman looking back at her curiously. "Here," she said quickly, flustered, and plucked one flower off the yellow poppies on the counter. "Take this."

"What for?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Wealth and success," she said with a smile. "And they suit you."

"…Thanks," she replied slowly, taking the flower and small pin that Pearl offered her and placing it on the front of her jacket.

"You're welcome anytime you'd like, for flowers offensive and otherwise." Pearl handed over the bouquet and corresponding receipt. "I hope the rest of your day goes better."

The woman nodded, straightening her shoulders. "I appreciate it."

Pearl watched her disappear through the door, a small, amused smile on her face. She probably wouldn't be seeing her again—she knew the types that liked to visit flower shops, and this woman certainly hadn't been one of them—but at least she'd have a story to tell next time she saw her friends.

* * *

"Oh no. No, no, _no._ " Pearl looked through the stock again desperately. "I _know_ I ordered more daffodils, I had to have done it—"

Or, if she hadn't, she was going to have some very unhappy customers come tomorrow.

A quick check of her orders confirmed that she hadn't forgotten, her supplier had just gotten the order wrong.

She sank down to her knees, trying not to cry from the stress that had been steadily piling on all day. Why did it have to be so _hard_ to run a shop on her own? It had been so much easier with Rose around.

The chime of the door made her lift her head, and it took her a moment to process the woman in the doorway. She was in casual clothes this time, rather than business wear, though it did little to soften the sharp lines of her posture.

"Is this a bad time?" she asked, eyes cutting across to where Pearl was sitting forlornly.

"No! No, please, come in. Welcome back." She pushed herself to her feet and wiped off her hands on a towel, blinking quickly to try and dispel any tears that were threatening. "Oh, how did things go with your job?"

"The same as always," she replied with a shrug. "I gave my notice today."

"I hope everything works out then," Pearl said honestly, trying to wipe at her eyes discreetly. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh, that's—I wasn't—Are you alright?" the woman asked awkwardly.

"Yes, I'm fine," she answered quickly, throat tight. "I'm just tired. What sort of flowers are you looking for today?"

"I'm not, actually," she said stiltedly.

Pearl gave her an odd look.

"I just thought I'd stop by. And say hello." Her eyes were directed somewhere over Pearl's head. "I don't know, never mind. Take these."

Pearl looked down, suddenly finding an unfamiliar bouquet of flowers in her hands. "You _brought_ flowers?" she asked in disbelief.

"In retrospect, it wasn't my best idea. I didn't have time to figure out what all of them meant either, so I just picked a nice-looking one."

"But why did you bring flowers?"

"I don't know!" she said exasperatedly. "Don't _cry_ over it!"

"I'm not—oh." Pearl swiped her fingers over her cheek. "No, I'm sorry, I'm not crying about the flowers, I've just had a very stressful day and I don't know how I'm going to complete this order for tomorrow… It's fine, I shouldn't even be bothering you with this, you're a _customer_ …"

"I don't care, I told you I'm not buying anything." She made to move closer to Pearl, then caught herself. "Do you want help with something?"

"No, no, I'm okay." She rubbed a hand over her forehead wearily.

"I don't have anything to do."

Pearl shook her head. "I don't even know your name."

"Yellow."

"What?"

"That's my name. Or, well, it's not my actual name, but it's what everyone calls me."

"What's your actual name?"

"Horribly embarrassing."

Pearl laughed tearfully. "My condolences."

"Thanks." Yellow scratched at her shoulder.

"Oh, I never properly introduced myself either, did I? I'm Pearl."

"It's on your nametag."

"Right." She scrubbed at her flushed cheeks. "Thank you for coming by, Yellow, but I really should get back to work."

"You're sure you don't want help? I can at least watch the store while you wash your face or something."

"No, I…" Pearl faltered. "I-I would appreciate that. Thank you."

"Don't worry about it." Yellow went over to the counter and hopped up on the stool with a confident air.

Pearl hesitated for a moment under the pretense of fixing some of the flowers and then hurried into the back to freshen up, feeling embarrassed for having cried in front of someone she barely knew. She rushed through the process so she could get back, but she returned to a shop that was just as spotless as it had been five minutes prior and found Yellow organizing the day's receipts.

"Oh, there you are." Yellow continued to sort them, making no move to get up. "No one's come by, thankfully. All I know how to say in flower is 'fuck off'."

Pearl tried to look annoyed but ended up letting out a snort of laughter instead.

"I can stick around for a little while," she said with a pleased smirk. "If you need time to work on whatever the problem is."

"Would you?" she asked hopefully. "I'll be right here; I just need to make some calls."

Yellow nodded, turning back to her task.

After several stressful phone calls later, Pearl managed to put a makeshift plan together and guarantee she'd be able to have all the flowers ready on time the next day. Once that had been taken care of, she and Yellow began working together to straighten up the shop, the other woman making no effort to ask questions or start a conversation, which Pearl was grateful for.

A few more customers came in towards the end of the evening, and Pearl attended to each of them before beginning to close things up for the day. She was almost surprised to find that Yellow had stuck around the whole time, doing small useful things to help out without needing direction.

"I didn't mean to make you stay this long," Pearl began anxiously once they were alone.

"It's fine. I owed you one." Yellow leaned against the counter, long legs crossing at the ankle. "It's a pretty nice place you've got, even if I don't care about flowers."

"Thanks," she said doubtfully, narrowing her eyes. "You know, you never actually explained why you're here."

A faint blush rose to the other woman's cheeks and she pushed herself upright. "It's not important."

"Or why you brought flowers to a flower shop."

"I brought the flowers to _you_ ," Yellow corrected her, avoiding eye contact.

"That doesn't make it any less odd."

"Shut up," she said, voice lacking any bite. "I was trying to ask you out, you know."

Pearl stopped short, wide eyes searching the other woman's reticent expression. "You what?"

" _I was trying to ask you out._ But then you looked really upset and you were crying and, hell, I don't know what to do with people when they cry but I'm pretty sure asking them to dinner isn't the right way to go about it, so I stuck around and tried to help." She shrugged uncomfortably.

"But…why did you want to ask me out?" Pearl asked blankly, her face heating up.

"You're _actually_ going to make me answer that?" Yellow replied irritably. "I don't know, you're cute, I'm gay, and you helped me out when I was having a really shitty week. That's a good enough reason, right? It's just _dinner_ , I wasn't going to ask you to marry me."

Pearl knew her face was now a brilliant red, and it was all she could do not to try and hide it in her hands. "Dinner sounds lovely," she said faintly, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.

Yellow honestly looked surprised at the response, but she recovered quickly. "Not tonight," she said briskly. "You should rest." She scribbled down a phone number onto the back of a business card and held it out. "Call me tomorrow if you're still interested."

"I will," she said, curling her fingers around the small paper. "Yellow," she added as the other woman turned to go.

She stopped. "What?"

Pearl reached out and brushed her fingers against Yellow's. "Thank you for the flowers."

Yellow smirked. "You're welcome."

"Take one for luck?" she offered, holding up a small yellow and white plumeria.

"Sure," she said, eyes softening. She blushed as Pearl reached over to tuck the stem behind her ear. "What's this one mean?"

"New beginnings."


End file.
